The Johns Hopkins researchers who first showed that the commonly used blood pressure drug losartan may help prevent life-threatening aneurysms of the aorta in patients with Marfan syndrome have now discovered new clues about the precise mechanism behind the drug's protective effects. The team's findings not only answer many lingering questions — including how exactly the drug works and whether other classes of blood-pressure medication may work as well as or better than losartan — but also identify new targets for treating Marfan and other connective-tissue disorders. ...

The April issue of Energy Digital is available to read exclusively online to all energy industry leaders from around the globe. This month's issue features a unique new system for well site inspection to boost safety and efficiency. Industry leaders turn to Energy Digital for the latest news about cutting edge energy technologies, global energy infrastructure, developments in green and sustainable energy and the corporate activity in the sector. Read the full article here.About Energy Digital Energy Digital is a leading digital media source of news and content for ...

Recording people belting out an old Motown tune and then asking them to listen to their own singing without the accompanying music seems like an unusually cruel form of punishment. But for a team of scientists at the University of California, San Francisco and University of California, Berkeley, this exact Karaoke experiment has revealed what part of the brain is essential for embarrassment. The twist to the experiment was that most of the subjects had neurodegenerative diseases, which helped scientists identify a thumb-sized bit of tissue in the right hemisphere of the ...

Producing hydrogen in a sustainable way is a challenge and production cost is too high. A team led by EPFL Professor Xile Hu has discovered that a molybdenum based catalyst is produced at room temperature, inexpensive and efficient. The results of the research are published online in Chemical Science Thursday the 14th of April. An international patent based on this discovery has just been filled. Existing in large quantities on Earth, water is composed of hydrogen and oxygen. It can be broken down by applying an electrical current; this is the process known as electrolysis. ...

There's no denying that social media, by many once considered a here-today-gone-tomorrow fad, is a key arrow in a marketer's quiver. It's word of mouth on steroids and free, right? Or not. Social media experts in Kenya and South Africa warn companies not to view social media marketing, on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as free. Yes, these platforms are umpteen times more cost-effective that traditional advertising such as TV or print, but do need time, money and strategic thought to be effective. "Although putting content onto Facebook using fan pages is ...

A serendipitous discovery by academics at The University of Nottingham has shown that a simple illusion can significantly reduce — and in some cases even temporarily eradicate — arthritic pain in the hand. By tricking the brain into believing that the painful part of the hand is being stretched or shrunk, the researchers were able to halve the pain felt by 85 per cent of sufferers they tested. The research could point to new technologies of the future which could assist patients in improving mobility in their hand by reducing the amount of pain they experience while ...

Approximately 20% of Spaniards take non-prescribed medication and women are the group most inclined towards this practice. This is the conclusion of a research study carried out by experts from the Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid, which also links this habit to nationality, income level and alcohol and tobacco consumption amongst the population. "In spite of the negative connotations generally associated with the idea of self-medication, it is actually the most significant method of self-care for the population", explains Pilar Carrasco, main author of the study ...

Motion sensor technology is taking the gaming world by storm. Although it took a long time to reach the shelves, the Xbox Kinect has fully lived up to its hype and expectation after reaching sales figures of 10 million in March 2011 and soon became the fastest selling consumer electronics device of all time, for which it holds a Guinness World Record. Although the Nintendo Wii still remains the market leader, it seems like the Kinect will soon overtake this industry stalwart in the popularity stakes, with the PlayStation Move hot on its competitor's heels. Positioned ...

Genetically modified bacteria could be used in air filters to extract pesticide vapors from polluted air thanks to work by researchers in China published this month in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. The bacteria Escherichia coli is perhaps best known as a bacterium that can cause food poisoning and in one form, the O157:H7, can damage the kidneys and even be lethal. However, E coli, is commonly used in biological research as a model organism for a wide range of beneficial experiments. Now, researchers in China have discovered that a genetically ...

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. -- One way of discovering a gene's function is to switch it off and observe how the loss of its activity affects an organism. If a gene is essential for survival, however, then switching it off permanently will kill the organism before the gene's function can be determined. Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have overcome this problem by using RNA interference (RNAi) technology to temporarily turn off any essential gene in adult mice and then turn it back on before the change kills the animals. In a study published online on April ...

Atlanta-based inABLE races to earn a permanent spot on the GlobalGiving website by mobilizing at least 50 unique donors before the end of April to raise $4,000. Help inABLE win this challenge at http://www.globalgiving.org/projects/computer-labs-for-the-blind. inABLE shares hope and opportunity by bringing life changing, computer-based educational tools to Africa's blind and visually impaired students. The seed of inspiration behind inABLE was planted in 2008 when Atlanta resident Irene Mbari-Kirika traveled back to her native country Kenya and encountered an engaging ...

In the first scientific results from the new European telescope LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) to appear in a journal – Astronomy & Astrophysics – the scientists present the most sensitive, low-frequency observations of pulsars ever made. The International LOFAR Telescope is the first in a new generation of massive radio telescopes, designed to study the sky at the lowest radio frequencies accessible from the surface of the Earth with unprecedented resolution. Deep observations of pulsars is one of its key science goals. Dr Benjamin Stappers, from the School of Physics ...

Badbeat.com, the original and leading online poker staking business, is running a TT Race promotion throughout the lead up to the Isle of Man TT in May, offering its sponsored players Main Event tickets to the UKIPT Newcastle worth GBP500. From 9am May 1st to 9am June 1st, any qualifying Badbeat sponsored player who wins a hand holding TT (a pair of tens) will have a chance to win a UKIPT Newcastle Main Event ticket. Badbeat will award one prize for every ten players who qualify. "We're always looking for innovative ways to reward our sponsored players and they ...

Using human kidney cells and brain tissue from adult mice, Johns Hopkins scientists have uncovered the sequence of steps that makes normally stable DNA undergo the crucial chemical changes implicated in cancers, psychiatric disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. The process may also be involved in learning and memory, the researchers say. A report on their study appears online April 14 in Cell. While DNA is the stable building block of all of an individual's genetic code, or genome, the presence or absence of a methyl group at specific locations chemically alters ...

Researchers from North Carolina State University have created a range of soft, elastic gels that change color when exposed to ultraviolet (UV) light – and change back when the UV light is removed or the material is heated up. The gels are impregnated with a type of photochromic compound called spiropyran. Spiropyrans change color when exposed to UV light, and the color they change into depends on the chemical environment surrounding the material. The researchers made the gels out of an elastic silicone substance, which can be chemically modified to contain various other ...

alqemyiQ, a leader in demand data analytics for the consumer goods industry, announced today that it has signed an enterprise agreement with JOH to expand the DataAlchemy software solution for automating the category and sales reporting process across their entire organization. "JOH, a leading regional food broker in the United States, has been using DataAlchemy since 2008," said Glenn Geho, COO of alqemyiQ. "It has been thrilling to see the impact that our desktop software solution has had on JOH's reporting of insights. We look forward to helping JOH uncover more ...

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine will present several key studies at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) annual meeting, including research providing critical insight into the prognosis and clinical treatment course of people with a certain subtype of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The meeting is taking place April 9-16 in Honolulu. In a study titled "Evaluation of Progressive Relapsing MS Patients in the PROMISE Trial," Fred Lublin, MD, Saunders Family Professor of Neurology and the Director of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis ...

An International team of scientists in the XENON collaboration, including several from the Weizmann Institute, announced on Thursday the results of their search for the elusive component of our universe known as dark matter. This search was conducted with greater sensitivity than ever before. After one hundred days of data collection in the XENON100 experiment, carried out deep underground at the Gran Sasso National Laboratory of the INFN, in Italy, they found no evidence for the existence of Weakly Interacting Massive Particles – or WIMPs – the leading candidates for the ...

Desktop virtualization offers significantly better security in comparison to regular PCs. Regular user PCs suffer from a number of security risks, and security plays an important role in the activities of the stock exchange operator. Employees who process stock exchange data need to be equipped with ever more sophisticated means of data protection. „Legacy PC suffers number of security threats in our processing and dealing environment as national stock exchange data provider. We have chosen Stickfish as a VDI solution supplier for very high level of desktop security ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. - A Mayo Clinic case study finds Botox may offer new hope to patients suffering disabling low cerebrospinal fluid headaches. The successful treatment also offers new insight into Botox and headache treatment generally. The case study was presented March 13th, 2011 at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Hawaii. Low CSF pressure headaches are caused by an internal spinal fluid leak. The pain can range from slight to disabling. The headaches are most commonly triggered by a lumbar puncture. The pain is caused as fluid leaks out and the brain ...

Palo Alto, CA—Scientists have known for decades that black carbon aerosols add to global warming. These airborne particles made of sooty carbon are believed to be among the largest man-made contributors to global warming because they absorb solar radiation and heat the atmosphere. New research from Carnegie's Long Cao and Ken Caldeira, along with colleagues George Ban-Weiss and Govindasamy Bala, quantifies how black carbon's impact on climate depends on its altitude in the atmosphere. Their work, published online by the journal Climate Dynamics, could have important implications ...

Some of the Pharmaceuticals intended for the treatment of minor illnesses of astronauts in space may require special packaging and reformulation to remain stable for long periods in the space environment. That's according to Dr. Putcha and her colleagues from NASA, Johnson Space Centre. Their findings, published online in The AAPS Journal suggest that some of the pharmaceuticals stored on space flights may have shorter shelf-life than they do on Earth. Pharmaceuticals used on space flights are packed and dispensed in special flight-certified containers and stored in ...

With obesity rates soaring, the government has been promoting nudge – a strategy that does not tell people how to live but encourages them to make healthy choices in respect of diet and exercise. Experts on bmj.com this week go head to head over whether nudge is an effective way to tackle obesity. Professor Tim Lang and Dr Geof Rayner, both from the Centre for Food Policy at City University in London, say that nudge is not new and that it is "a smokescreen for, at best, inaction and, at worst, publicly endorsed marketing." They argue that the nudging strategy portrays ...

Two small randomised trials published on bmj.com today suggest that closed loop insulin delivery (also known as an artificial pancreas) may improve overnight blood glucose control and reduce the risk of nocturnal hypoglycaemia (a sudden drop in blood glucose levels during the night) in adults with type 1 diabetes. The number of people with type 1 diabetes is increasing at a rate of 3% per year, particularly in white northern European populations. Lifelong insulin therapy is needed to control blood glucose levels, but the risk of hypoglycaemia remains a major challenge, ...

Writing in BioEssays, cancer scientists Ana Soto and Carlos Sonnenschein pit their controversial Tissue Organization Field Theory (TOFT) of the origin of cancer against the widely accepted Somatic Mutation Theory (SMT) in what is believed to be the first time the two theories have formally opposed each other – championed by authors from opposite sides of the debate – in a common forum for discussion. Soto and Sonnenschein, from Tufts University, argue that SMT, which is based on the accumulation of genetic mutations in cells, not only fails to provide an explanation for ...